Rajapaksa ally vows to erect Buddhist viharas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2018, 09:29 GMT]Sinhala parliamentarians belonging to Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) or National Freedom Front, an extreme Sinhala nationalist JVP-breakaway group, which is aligned with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, visited Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa on Thursday confronting the Tamil residents. The Tamil villagers opposed the group, but it vowed to erect Buddha statues confronting the Eezham Tamils. The JNP parliamentarians were accompanied by an extremist Buddhist monk who has been blocked by Mullaiththeevu Magistrate from erecting Buddha statues under cover of so-called conservation.

The monk is already backed by the SL Archaeology Department, which is under the control of the Ranil Wickramasinghe's UNP.

SL President Maithiripala Sirisena is also backing the monks and is the commander of the SL military, which is actively promoting the intruding Buddhist monks.

R.M. Padma Udhayashantha Gunasekara MP representing JNP in Monaragala District and Jayantha Samaraweera MP representing the same party from Kalutura District were the two MPs visiting Vedukku-naa'ri hilltop in Vavuniyaa and Kurunthoormalai in Mullaiththeevu. JNPs spokesman Mussammil Mohamed, who is a former MP, also accompanied the group.

As the Tamil villagers at Vedukku-naa'ri in Vavuniyaa learned about the visiting group, they rushed to the site to express their concerns.

The visiting group argued that there was a Buddhist temple during the times of Devanampiya tissa (307 BC to 267 BC). That temple was restored in 1977, but the LTTE had destroyed it, the visiting group claimed. It further said the claim of village deities temple by the villagers was a new one.

A heated argument pursued between the JNP parliamentarians and the Tamil villagers.

SL Police intervened to avoid confrontations and escorted the visiting group away from the locality.

The 88-year-old parliamentarian Jayantha Samaraweera used abusive language against the Tamils while leaving the site with the protection of Sinhala police.

The JNP has four of the 225 seats in the SL Parliament.

All the Sinhala parties are competing with each other in Sinhalicising the heritage sites of Eezham Tamils, the villagers complained.